‘Now, we have to go to the Rainbow Pools,’ said Hannah. ‘They’re just round the mountain to the east. We can ski there.’
It didn’t take them long to reach the Rainbow Pools – seven pools between the mountains and the forest. The pools were heated by hot springs and so steam rose off them. Each was a different colour.
Hannah glanced at the banks of reeds fringing the water. ‘I hope getting a reed isn’t as difficult as getting an icicle,’ she said anxiously.
Molly got her penknife out of her bag. ‘Only one way to find out!’ She walked over and grabbed a reed. To their relief, she managed to cut it very easily.
‘Look, someone else has been here already!’ Emily said, spotting footprints in the snow around the reed banks. ‘I wonder which team it was.’
‘We’d better get a move on,’ said Molly, putting the reed in Emily’s rucksack with the icicle. ‘We’ve still got to get the feather and find the shelter this afternoon.’ She looked at the sky. It was well past midday and the sun was heading down in the sky.
Hannah checked the map. ‘Right, the ice owls are just south of here.’ She pointed across the field to where the woods started. ‘They’re through the trees that way, but that area is not marked as safe on the map. I guess what we need to do is go back the way we came and get on the main river again.’
‘But that’s a really long way round,’ Emily said. ‘We don’t have to go all the way back there, do we? We could use one of the smaller rivers marked on the map.’
‘Or, even better, just cut across the fields here, go into the woods and ski until we find a river,’ said Molly.
‘We can’t do that,’ protested Hannah. ‘We’re supposed to stay in the marked areas. You know that.’
‘It’ll be fine,’ said Molly. ‘It will be much quicker than going back.’
‘No,’ Hannah said.
‘Yes!’ said Molly.
‘Don’t argue, you two,’ Emily begged, but Molly and Hannah both ignored her.
‘We’re staying in the areas marked on the map,’ said Hannah stubbornly.
‘Maybe you are, but I’m not!’ Molly said equally stubbornly. ‘I’m going this way!’
‘No, Molly!’ Emily said quickly as Molly set off.
‘Molly, come back,’ Hannah called in alarm. ‘You can’t just go off on your own.’
‘You’d better come with me then,’ Molly cried over her shoulder.
‘Come on,’ Emily urged Hannah as Molly skied off across the meadow.
‘She’ll come back,’ Hannah replied. ‘She won’t really try and get there on her own.’
‘Hannah! How well do you know Molly? You know what she’s like when she gets like this,’ Emily said. ‘She’s not going to come back.’
Hannah hesitated.
‘Please! Come on!’ Emily pleaded.
Hannah gave in. ‘Oh, all right.’
‘Molly, wait!’ Emily called.
But Molly was too far ahead to hear them. She entered the woods without looking back.
Emily and Hannah headed after her towards the treeline. Suddenly they heard a loud scream.
They looked at each other. ‘Molly!’ they both gasped.
Chapter Six
Off the Path
‘Molly!’ Hannah shouted again, but there was no reply.
‘Quick!’ exclaimed Emily, her heart hammering.
They reached the trees. But just as they skied into them, Hannah grabbed Emily’s arm. ‘Careful, Em!’ she shrieked.
In front of them, the ground ended in a steep drop. Another metre and they would have plunged right over the edge. Emily felt as if she’d just had a bucket of ice dumped over her as Hannah pointed wordlessly to a thick track in the snow. Two ski marks came to an abrupt end and then there was a path of flattened snow running down the slope as if someone had fallen and rolled over and over down it.
‘Molly must have skied straight over the edge. Come on!’ Hannah was already undoing her skis. Emily quickly did the same. They both knew it was hard to ski downhill in cross-country skis and the slope was way too steep for them to be able to do it safely. Throwing down their rucksacks beside their skis, they began to clamber down the slope as fast as they could, grabbing on to bushes and tree trunks as they went to stop themselves from falling. All sorts of images ran through Emily’s mind – Molly injured, crashed into a tree, hurt…
‘Where is she?’ Emily panted as they followed Molly’s trail in the snow.
‘There’s one of her skis!’ cried Hannah, spotting it sticking up in the snow. ‘Molly! Molly!’ she shouted.
Emily joined in.
A faint cry echoed from further down the slope. ‘Help!’
They scrambled towards the sound and suddenly they saw Molly.
‘Oh, no!’ Emily gasped.
Molly was hanging on to a tree trunk with both hands, the weight of her rucksack pulling her down the steep icy slope. Her teeth were gritted and her face was pale with the effort of clinging on.
‘Hang on! We’re coming!’ shouted Hannah.
Within seconds, Emily and Hannah had reached Molly. Throwing themselves on the ground, they each grabbed one of her arms.
‘Thank you!’ Molly gasped.
Using all the strength they had, Emily and Hannah pulled Molly and her rucksack back up to safer ground.
Molly collapsed in a heap in the snow. ‘Oh, Molly!’ Emily said, flinging her arms round her. Hannah joined in. All three of them were shaking.
‘Thank you for rescuing me!’ gasped Molly, her teeth chattering with shock and cold.
For a moment they were all silent as they struggled to get their breath back. They were halfway down the steep slope. There were trees at the bottom and through them the frozen waters of a river sparkled. To the left was the drop that Molly had almost fallen over.
‘Are you all right?’ Emily asked Molly. ‘Did you hurt yourself?’
‘No. I’m OK,’ said Molly.
‘What happened?’ Hannah demanded.
‘I skated over the edge of the slope,’ Molly replied. ‘I was going so fast I couldn’t stop in time and suddenly I was over the top of it and falling. I rolled down and down and grabbed the tree trunk just in time.’ She shivered. ‘Thank you so much for helping me. I didn’t think I was going to be able to hold on for much longer –’ She broke off. ‘I should never have gone off like that,’ she whispered.
‘It was really dumb,’ Emily agreed, hugging her. ‘Don’t do it again. Not ever!’
‘I won’t. I promise,’ said Molly. ‘I just couldn’t bear the thought of skiing all the way back round the mountain again.’
Suddenly a low hooting sound echoed through the air. Emily glanced up and saw a large white bird take off from a tree nearby. ‘An ice owl!’ she said. ‘Look!’
‘He must be out hunting,’ said Hannah.
The bird flew over their heads and landed on another tree where there was a large nest. It stood on the edge of the nest and shook itself. As it did so, one of its white and grey feathers spiralled to the ground.
Emily jumped to her feet and ran to where the feather had landed on the snow. She picked it up.
‘Cool!’ said Molly in delight.
Hannah grinned. ‘You know, Molly, maybe coming off the map was a good thing to do after all!’
‘Ha! Didn’t you know, it was my plan all along!’ Molly said airily. She grinned back at Hannah. ‘But, you know, I think we should maybe stick to the map from now on!’
Chapter Seven
The Ice Ghost
Hannah got to her feet, offering Molly a hand up. ‘Emily and I will have to go and get our rucksacks and things.’ She checked the map. ‘But then, if we walk down through the trees here, we should soon get to a river that is marked on the map.’
‘Will it take us to our shelter?’ said Emily. The thought of sitting down inside, lighting a fire and having a rest seemed very appealing.
Hannah nodded.
‘We can tel
l ghost stories when we’re there,’ said Molly as they started to tramp back up the hill. ‘Have you heard about the ice ghost who haunts these woods?’
‘An ice ghost?’ Emily said. She saw Molly’s teasing glint. ‘There isn’t really one, is there?’
‘Maybe not,’ Molly admitted. ‘But I bet I could make up some good stories about it! I know loads of ghost stories!’
Emily and Hannah collected their things and then all three scrambled down the slope carefully to the nearby river that was marked on the map. They put on their ice skates and skated along it for a while before switching back to their skis and setting off through the trees. They passed two other shelters on the way. One was empty and Camilla’s team was in the other. Camilla was outside and she saw Emily, Hannah and Molly skiing past.
‘Bet you haven’t got as many things as we have!’ she called as they slowed down. ‘We’ve already got the feather, the reed and the icicle. And the icicle is really difficult to get.’
‘I know. We’ve got one too,’ said Molly. ‘And we’ve got the other things.’
‘Have you got the leaf yet?’ said Camilla, looking suddenly anxious.
‘No,’ said Molly. ‘But we will and we’ll get back to school first tomorrow.’
Camilla snorted. ‘In your dreams!’
‘Come on,’ Emily said to Molly. She didn’t want to waste a single second of their adventure arguing with Camilla.
They skied on and found their hut. It was made of logs and nestled among the trees. Emily stopped in relief in front of the door. Her feet were aching. ‘Ouch,’ she said, rubbing her toes. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever skated so much in one day.’
‘Me neither,’ said Molly. ‘My legs are aching.’
Hannah grinned at them. ‘You both sound like moaning Amandas. Come on, let’s go and see inside our shelter.’
It was lovely to step inside the cosy hut. There was a rug on the floor and a stove already made up with logs and coal that they just had to light. Three beds folded down from the walls. The girls got their sleeping bags out and laid them on the beds. There was a tiny kitchen with a sink and a cupboard. Beside the sink was a large dish full of sausages and beans, three big red apples and a chocolate cake.
They each had a piece of cake and then unpacked. The stove soon warmed the shelter up.
‘This is brilliant,’ said Molly, bouncing on her bed.
While Hannah started to heat the food on the stove, Emily went to the window of the shelter. The sun was setting and it was almost dusk. She looked out at the trees and saw something. ‘There are ice dragons out there!’
The others ran up to the window. In the trees nearby were two large messy nests made with big twigs and a dragon was circling round the branches. ‘I’ve got to go and say hello!’ said Emily.
‘But it’s cold,’ protested Molly.
‘I don’t care!’ Emily started to pull on her coat and boots.
‘Mad!’ said Hannah, shaking her head.
Emily grinned and went to the door. She couldn’t resist a chance to see the wild dragons.
She went outside into the snow. After the warmth of the shelter, the icy air bit into her face. She hurried over to the trees where the dragons’ nests were. Two of them flew out when they saw her. She held out her hands and they flapped over and landed on her gloves, twitching their horns and chirruping.
‘Hello,’ she chirruped back in dragon language.
They both looked very startled.
‘I’m Emily,’ she told them.
They talked quickly. Emily could just about understand. ‘Yes, we’re the human girls from the school,’ she said and then broke into English. ‘Sorry, I’m not very good at speaking dragon. I’m trying to learn it from the ice dragons at school, but it’s not easy! We’re here on a scavenger hunt. There are four teams of us.’ The dragons nodded. They seemed to understand her just like the dragons at the school did. ‘We’ve got to get four things.’ Emily told them all about the objects they had to find. ‘And then we have to find out one new fact about the land or the creatures in it.’
The dragon on her left hand squeaked a few times.
‘No, we haven’t found anything out yet,’ said Emily, understanding. ‘We’ll have to try and find something out tomorrow before we go back to school.’
The dragon said something to his friend. They flew off her hands and suddenly both started to sing in croaky voices! As they did so, a swirl of colours burst out of their mouths and formed two rainbows over their heads. Emily gasped. ‘I didn’t know ice dragons could do that!’
The dragons stopped singing and looked at her almost smugly.
Emily realized what she’d just said. ‘You’re showing me so that it can be our secret fact! Oh, wow! Thank you!’
The dragons chirruped happily at her. She turned and ran back into the hut. Wait until she told the others!
Hannah and Molly were delighted. ‘I wish I’d seen them do that,’ said Molly.
‘Me too,’ said Hannah.
‘We could ask them to show you tomorrow,’ said Emily, glancing out of the window. ‘It’s dark now.’
‘And the food is ready,’ said Hannah. ‘Let’s eat. I’m starving.’
Molly had found some plates and they sat down on their beds and ate with the plates on their knees.
It was fun sitting in the warm hut with the dark night outside. Molly started telling scary stories. First of all, she made up stories about a creepy ice ghost who stalked his way through the woods at night and then she told them one about a boy who had found a ring beside a grave. She insisted on turning all the lights off apart from one as she told it.
‘And, when the boy was in bed, he heard footsteps on the stairs and a voice saying, “I’m on the first step, Tommy, and I want my ring back.” And then there was a thud on the next stair and the voice said, “I’m on the second step, Tommy, and I want my ring back.” And then there was a thud on the last step and –’
There was a loud cracking noise as something hit the window.
‘Aaah!’ Emily, Hannah and Molly all jumped about a metre into the air.
‘What was that?’ gasped Hannah.
There was another noise and a ghostly white shape flitted past the glass.
‘Look!’ Emily cried.
‘It’s a ghost!’ yelled Hannah.
There was another crack as something hit the window again. Emily and Hannah both shrieked.
But Molly jumped to her feet and went over to the side of the window. She peered out. ‘It’s not a ghost. It’s just someone in a sheet trying to scare us!’
Emily felt her heart slow down. ‘Really?’
‘Yes. I can see a couple of other people in the shadows. The noise is them throwing pebbles at the window, I’m sure.’
Hannah got to her feet and joined Molly. ‘You’re right.’ She looked cross. ‘How dumb of them. They shouldn’t be out in the dark.’
She marched to the door and opened it, with Molly and Emily behind her. ‘Ha ha, very funny!’ she called.
‘Like we’re scared,’ added Molly.
‘You so were!’ came Camilla’s smug voice out of the dark. She stepped forward out of the shadows of the trees. ‘We heard you scream. You thought Tess really was a ghost.’
Tess had pulled off the sheet and was smirking at them. ‘Tricked you!’
Molly snorted. ‘No, you didn’t. We only screamed cos for a moment we thought it was… the ice ghost.’
‘Ice ghost?’ echoed Helena, who was beside Camilla with Clare. Emily could see the dragons stirring in the trees behind them, disturbed by all the noise. They peered over the twigs curiously, looking from one set of girls to the other.
‘Yeah. Hadn’t you heard about him? Madame Li told me. He’s really tall and made of slabs of ice. He comes through the trees at night and grabs people,’ said Molly. ‘That was why Madame Letsworth said we had to stay in our shelters at night-time.’
‘As if we’re going to believe that,�
� said Camilla scornfully.
But the others looked a bit uncertain. ‘Come on, Cam. Let’s get back,’ said Tess.
‘You know what he does,’ said Molly quickly. ‘He makes a singing sound and makes rainbows appear in the air just before he’s about to grab someone, doesn’t he, Emily?’ She gave Emily a meaningful look.
Emily stared at her and suddenly realized what Molly wanted her to do. ‘Oh, yes, that’s what he does,’ she said, nodding hard. She looked at the dragons and then whistled and chirruped, hoping she was getting the words right: ‘Would you sing for me? Please!’
Camilla stared at her. ‘What’s with all the whistling? You are so weird, Emily.’
‘I might be weird, but at least I’m not out in the woods with the ice ghost,’ said Emily as, to her delight, the dragons nodded. They lifted their snouts and began to sing.
Camilla instantly jumped at the croaking noise. ‘What’s that?’
‘Camilla! Look!’ cried Tess as rainbows of colour arched into the dark night sky above the dragons’ nests.
Helena and Clare screamed.
‘It’s the ice ghost!’ shouted Tess. ‘It’s come to get us!’
‘Quick!’ yelled Helena.
She, Clare and Tess raced through the trees. Camilla hesitated for a moment and then turned and ran after them as fast as she could.
Emily, Hannah and Molly fell about laughing. ‘Oh, thank you!’ Molly said to the dragons when they stopped singing.
‘Yes, that was brilliant,’ Emily said. ‘Thank you so much!’
‘Did you see Camilla’s face?’ chuckled Hannah.
The dragons looked amused. They chirruped a goodnight and settled down in their nests again.
Emily, Hannah and Molly went back inside their shelter still giggling. They cleared away their plates, got into their pyjamas and brushed their teeth. Then they snuggled down in their sleeping bags. ‘We must get up early,’ said Hannah. ‘Just one more thing to get and then we can go back to school.’
‘Oh, I hope we win!’ said Emily.
Skating School: Scarlet Skate Magic Page 3
